Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I begin by extending a personal tribute to Deputy Micheál Martin on his public service and thanking him for the courtesy he has extended to me since I became a Deputy. I appreciate it. We all acknowledge that he took office at an unprecedented time of challenge, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Since then, we have faced the additional enormous challenge of the fallout from Russia's brutal war on Ukraine and we are also facing this existential climate catastrophe which must be acknowledged. It must also be acknowledged that very few people get to choose of their own free will their time of stepping down as Taoiseach. For that alone, today is unique.

However, we in the Labour Party cannot support the Fine Gael nomination at this changeover time. We do not believe that this so-called changeover represents anything but a cosmetic change at a time when we need a real and substantial change in the policies and solutions proposed by the Government. We in the Labour Party know, as people across the country know, that this Government is not delivering an Ireland that works for all - an Ireland of equality. In 1919, more than 100 years ago, one of our party's founders, Thomas Johnson, wrote in the Democratic Programme of the First Dáil, "It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for the physical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shall suffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter". Important words, yet nearly 250,000 children today live in deprivation, with 3,480 children homeless and, a week from Christmas, far too many parents will struggle to heat homes this winter, put food on the table for their children or ensure that Santa will bring a gift.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle, we have come through a once-in-a-century pandemic. We have seen the capacity of the State to pivot and deliver public services and radical change urgently. This Government, however, has failed to seize the opportunity to refashion housing provision, social infrastructure and the health service at a time of strong budget surpluses. The opportunity to transform our country and society has been squandered. Now is when we need a radical vision to bring about a real change in policy. A brutal war is being waged on our Continent, with tens of thousands killed in Ukraine and millions of refugees fleeing Russian aggression. A return of inflation is ravaging incomes and it is hitting those on low wages, pensions and social welfare the hardest. There are ominous signs of a slowdown, with job losses in the tech sector, while the stalling of construction projects is slowing down the building and delivery of new homes. Record heatwaves across Europe this summer are a sharp reminder of stalled progress and untenable delays on bringing about renewable energy and the action necessary to meet our ambitious climate targets. In 2020, we were told the programme for Government would invest in climate action and deliver a new energy system but, once again, a climate action plan for next year is delayed and there is no sign of the necessary reductions in emissions that need to be delivered now and next year.

When the outgoing Taoiseach was nominated two and a half years ago, we were told the test of the Government would be one of delivery. That is the right test but, on all the key measures of delivery and success, this Government has failed. Homelessness is up. Healthcare waiting lists are up and carbon emissions are up. Too many children have inadequate homes. Too many children with autism lack appropriate school places, or any school places. Too many parents are unable to find an affordable home or a suitable childcare or early years place, with no sign of promised reductions in crèche fees and crèches closing. Too many workers remain on low and insecure pay or stuck in traffic jams without decent public transport options. As we face into winter, too many older people remain deeply anxious about heating their homes or getting the care they need. Ireland remains far too dependent on fossil fuels, with surging use of energy in data centres and the failure to build the offshore wind generation capacity that we have been promised for so long and which is so sorely needed.

The failure of delivery on so many fronts should have re-fashioned the agenda and policies of the Government. Instead, what we are seeing with today's cosmetic changeover is a programme for Government that is unchanged, with no new ambitions and the same complacency. At the midway point of this coalition, why is there no substantive revision in policy? Why are we seeing a programme for Government that remains out of step with the changed world? Why are the same Ministers being retained in Departments where they are simply not delivering the necessary change?

Perhaps the new Taoiseach will surprise us later today with more dramatic changes than expected. However, unless the policies of the Government and the programme for Government are revised, there will be no change in the delivery and lack of delivery.

The Government has been plagued by resignations, instability and ethical concerns. We know, or we can predict at this stage, that the Tánaiste will return to the office of Taoiseach. On a personal level, I wish him very well. However, his party has spent too long in government and has run out of ideas. In the seven years Fine Gael has been in government since the 2016 general election, it has singularly failed to resolve the housing crisis. Indeed, it has made it worse, with an ideological insistence on an over-reliance on the private sector to deliver homes. It is a delivery that is simply not happening. We have seen a catalogue of unforced errors by Ministers, while talented backbenchers apparently remain blocked from taking high office.

The erosion of standards in public office has accelerated in more recent years under the Fine Gael-Fianna Fáil Government. A laissez-faireapproach to ethics rules and appointment processes and the growing habit and tendency to centralise power with Ministers and to ram legislation through the Oireachtas, as was done this week with the planning legislation, points to a growing arrogance and complacency. There has been no progress on the Public Sector Standards Bill first developed by Deputy Howlin, which would have overhauled ethics legislation and standards in public office. Yesterday, we saw the outgoing Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform issue a press release announcing approval of a report on the ethics review. However, we still have no draft law, despite the Standards in Public Office Commission, SIPO, asking repeatedly for more powers and despite multiple scandals in recent years. Today, the Labour Party is putting the Government on notice of the need to act urgently on ethics reform. We will be pressing this in the new year.

When the Dáil last gathered to elect a Taoiseach, I was not a Member. The only electoral contest since the coalition was formed delivered a clear rebuke to the Punch and Judy politics of Fine Gael versus Sinn Féin. The Dublin Bay South by-election result in July 2021 showed the public desire for a more constructive, positive and left-wing alternative to the status quo. It was a demand for strong State intervention on housing, care, climate and jobs. That demand is the reason the Labour Party, in 2020, made clear we could not support or form part of the Government formation. The permanent improvements in public services and increased State investment we wanted to see would require commitment to a change in tax policy, particularly on wealth. Our view of this was confirmed by the recent report of the Commission on Taxation and Welfare. Yet, in 2020 and since then, both Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have consistently ruled out changes in tax policy, thereby limiting scope for the Government to deliver transformational change. In particular, they have consistently ruled out the necessary increase in State investment in services. We know, therefore, that they cannot deliver the necessary change, particularly on housing but also on care, climate and building communities.

Throughout the course of this Dáil, the Labour Party has put forward constructive, social democratic and socialist alternative policies. We have worked to deliver change from the Opposition and we will continue to outline our vision of an Ireland that works for all. On workers' rights, we proposed legislation on sick pay, a living wage, a real right to flexible working and pay rises for workers. On housing, our renters' rights Bill would have limited the grounds for eviction and would have frozen rents. Our Bill to implement the Kenny report would end land speculation and hoarding. On care, we have championed student nurses, community and care workers and a public universal childcare scheme. On climate, we have argued for radical measures, including a €9 a month climate ticket and genuinely ambitious State action on emissions. More generally on reform, we have argued for a ban on gambling advertising, reform of our citizenship rules, rights for co-habiting couples and a national autism strategy.

On the economy, our fully costed budgets and cost-of-living measures would have put this country on a pathway to delivering real equality. That is the sort of Ireland the Labour Party wants to see - an Ireland that works for all. That is why, in the next election, we will offer a clear vision and alternative to both narrow nationalism and right-wing orthodoxy and ideology. We will offer a social democratic, socialist alternative to the Punch and Judy show. It is a show that may grab headlines but it will not deliver change. I have always believed that social and economic rights and social and economic equality are two sides of the same coin. That is why I joined the Labour Party. Campaigning for economic justice and standing up for those struggling to make ends meet are core to the vision and values of our party.

Today, as we see the failure of the market-knows-all polices of the Government, we know the Labour Party values of equality, solidarity and fairness are needed more than ever.

That is why today we will not be supporting the Fine Gael nomination for Taoiseach and why we believe that, instead of cosmetic change, we need to see real and substantial change in Ireland.

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